ERIC ED365131: Bilingual Education in Fryslan: Levels pdf

ERIC ED365131: Bilingual Education in Fryslan: Levels

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Description of the Book:

A majority of the population of Friesland in the Netherlands can speak the Frisian language and over 90 percent can understand it. Frisian is spoken by 55 percent of the population but only 10 percent of the population claim to be fluent in writing Frisian. A brief review of the development of Frisian in education suggests that Frisian has a rather strong position in formal legislation in education. Further, the formulation of objectives hints at the direction of full bilingualism. However, the position of Frisian in daily practice is rather weak and the implementation of Frisian has not resulted in a strong position of Frisian in primary education. Analysis of class hours per week spent on other minority languages in Europe such as Catalan, Basque, and Welsh supports this point. A research project is described that investigated the command of Frisian and Dutch by both Frisian- and Dutch-speaking students.

Data are presented concerning students’ speaking, reading, comprehension, spelling, and composition abilities. Findings support two conclusions: (1) education in Frisian does not negatively influence the command of the Dutch language of either Frisian- or Dutch-speaking pupils in Friesland, and (2) the command of the Frisian language of both Frisian- and Dutch-speaking pupils is of a very low level at the end of primary school. (Contains 27 references.) (JP

• Creator/s: ERIC
• Date: 12/8/1993
• Year: 1993
• Book Topics/Themes: ERIC Archive, Bilingual Education, Bilingualism, Dutch, Educational Policy, Elementary Education, Language Maintenance, Language Role, Second Language Learning, Second Languages, Uncommonly Taught Languages

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